Beeswax food savers

As well as a few plants, I also picked up some pretty beeswax cloth food covers from the Market @ Franklin last weekend. You warm them slightly in your hands and shape them around the food or container. Cheese, snacks, fresh ginger, fruit and veg... anything but meat. You need to keep them away from heat, and either just wipe them clean or rinse under cold water. After only a couple of days of using them, I'm hooked. Much easier than plastic wrap and better for the environment. Apparently they last at least six months, and when they're dead, you can compost them or use them as fire starters. And they smell nice. Like honey.

$3 each

Today's purchases at the Market @ Franklin: a walnut tree and two basil plants. $3 each. A large jar of blackberry jam, $5. We also made considerable inroads into the Christmas gift list, with Huon Pine goods, native pepperberry and more that can't be revealed yet lest the recipient actually reads my blog.

The late, great tomatoes

A lot of people in Tasmania had bumper tomato crops this year due to the warm, dry summer, but not me. I started from seed way back in August, then moved the seedlings from the dining room into the greenhouse as soon as it was warm enough, but they didn't grow as strongly as in past years. Only four plants were worth transplanting in the garden - but once they were in, wow! They grew quickly into healthy plants, each with a good crop of tomatoes. All green. And that's how they stayed, until the weather started to cool and the plants started to die off. Not a single one ripened. So I pulled out all four plants and hung them upside down in the greenhouse.

Since then, one or two tomatoes have started to colour up every day or two, and I bring them inside to ripen on the windowsill. In the meantime, I've bought kilos of lovely local tomatoes from the Huon Farmers Market to eat and make passata from. Still, it's true that home grown ones are the best. It has been a long wait, but my home grown ones are super sweet and delicious. Better luck next year?